Pornography 2010
Viewing pornographic material has, up until about ten or fifteen years ago, been a shameful and clandestine endeavor. As a result of this, there is not a great deal of analysis devoted to porn as literature. This is something that really needs doing, because there is a generation of young males that are growing up and discovering their sexual maturity. Looking at pornography is a form of media consumption. Like all media consumption, it must be critically reflected upon. This post is an attempt to elucidate some of the main points at issue, as I see them, regarding pornography. I suspect it will not be the last time I write about this in the near future. We will also examine the way the internet has transformed this form of literature, not just by making the viewing of pornography a practically ubiquitous activity among men (and some women, although as far as I can tell women who watch porn are generally seeking amusement rather than arousal, but I’m not like an expert on that so I could be wrong), but also by changing the way that the actresses interact with their audience.
It’s important to clarify the ethical question involved in the production of pornographic material. As I see it, there are two sides to this, namely supply and demand. Problems on the supply side are easy to identify. Conditions under which people are being pressured, coerced, threatened, manipulated by addiction, or actually forced to participate in the production of such material against their will cannot be tolerated. The snag is that these conditions are not necessarily identifiable merely by examining the final product. A photo series or video could depict grotesque sexual torture that is totally simulated, totally safe, and totally consensual, that does not actually cause any harm to the actors and actresses who play a part in the creation of that product. On the other hand, the creation of a video or photo spread depicting nothing more than a little nudity and perhaps some suggestive posing is a terrible crime if the subject is being coerced. This distinction is worth thinking about.
Which brings us to the demand side of things. Perhaps the actors and actresses participating in the afore-mentioned scene of simulated sexual torture are not harmed, but what can we say about the man who actually masturbates to this filth? As anyone who knows me is perfectly aware, I’m hardly a prude, but I don’t see how it’s possible to see someone who becomes aroused by images of abuse as anything other than reprehensible. I use that word in preference to “sick,” “needs help,” or “mentally ill,” because I don’t think that being a piece of shit is a sickness. In this case, the problem is with the consumer. Someone whose value system leads them to hold the people that arouse them in contempt to the extent at which they want to see those people “punished” sexually may not act out these scenarios in real life, but viewing this material does a great deal to reinforce their poisonous (usually misogynistic) values. This encourages the consumer in question to seek out other ways to manifest these values in their life and in the lives of the people around them. With effort, they will find ways to do this. Compare this type of individual to one aroused by the other image discussed above. That mildly explicit video or photo may have been produced as a result of a coercive criminal act, but it doesn’t really say anything about the person who views it. If they pay for it they’re participating in some sense, but if they look at it for free on the internet it’s hard to say that. This distinction, once again, is worth thinking about. It’s certainly conceivable that reprehensible person who views the mildly explicit image is going to imagine a sexual scenario that also confirms their values, just like the scene of sexual torture, but I still think there is a distinction there. I could be wrong about that.
The internet has been the major tool to distribute pornography in the last fifteen years, but the advent of increased copyright protection for online material and social networking sites has caused that dynamic to change significantly. Not only are there more regulations in place for people to protect copyrighted material, but the ubiquitous nature of pornography on the internet has done something to reduce the clandestine and concealed manner which pirates previously took advantage of to help themselves to whatever they liked. The idea that someone would be too ashamed of their involvement in that world to come forth and take legal action does not carry the water it once did.
Next, we have Twitter. I say Twitter because this appears to be the preferred social networking site for porn stars. Again, I’m not exactly an expert on this (0.o) but this is what it seems like to me. I have been absolutely fascinated by this phenomenon in the last few months. Recently, I noticed two things happen on the Twitter feed of Dors Feline, a young lady who does not appear to produce any material that actually involves her having sex, but is mostly limited to displaying her (formidable) breasts for her adoring (and paying) public. I began following her account out of curiosity, and noticed a few interesting things.
First of all, there was an incident a couple of months ago where material was stolen from the private, paying section of her website and distributed elsewhere online. She immediately went on Twitter, outraged, and asked her fans to do something about it. They very quickly went on attack mode and began to flood the thieves with nasty comments, abusive messages, and to actually hack these sites and remove the private material. Not too long after I saw a similar incident. Dors was upset because someone on Myspace had been sending her nasty, degrading messages. I tried to look at this guy’s Myspace page, but by the time I got there it had been hacked and defaced beyond any recognition. These fans are not fooling around. Stuff like that gives me warm fuzzies inside. I dearly hope what I’m seeing here is the beginning of a new trend in the production and distribution of porn. It makes me feel a little more optimistic about the whole situation.
Curiosity increasing, I began to follow the Twitter accounts of numerous porn stars. Although most of what I saw was significantly less dramatic than what I found on Dors Feline’s account (she seems to have this whole thing figured out pretty well), I was still encouraged. Most of it is the same crap that everyone else Tweets about, but that can actually be a big deal. When an actress known for some extremely hardcore material is Tweeting to tens of thousands of fans about going to a Red Socks game with her family, or the movie that she went to that night, this serves as an important reminder that she is a real person who does normal things. That may not sound like such a big step… well maybe it isn’t, but it’s a step nevertheless. Fans who previously might have only looked at this girl as a sexual instrument are brought into contact with her humanity. That will, no doubt, be lost on a lot of porn fans. But it will not be lost on everybody. I see this as having the potential to erode the barrier created by sexual objectification. It might not happen that way, sure, but I’m not wrong. The potential is there.
The beautiful young women who star in porn have, traditionally, been at the whim of producers and distributors of pornographic material. That has been the nature of the business. The horny and (occasionally) lonely men who masturbate to these pictures have also been more or less at the whim of the producers and distributors. The stereotypical porno-freak is a computer geek who can’t socially interact on a normal level and only gets sexual relief from these images and videos. Certainly this does not describe everyone who views such material, (because more or less everyone with a penis does, I assure you) but it is a significant demographic. When these two groups, porn stars and porn fans, suddenly have unprecedented access to one another through social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace, I have to ask, “what will the harvest be?”
It might mean that the actresses have increased control over their own material, what type of material they want to produce, and how they are perceived by their audience. At least, I see the potential for that. The real question I’m asking here is: how does that potential get realized? How does the supply and demand question, taken in consideration with the developments I describe above, offer an opportunity to create real, positive change? Porn, whether we like it or not, is now determining the way that the younger generation think about sex. Right now, as far as I can tell, that isn’t exactly a good thing. But. That. Can. Change. If people do not work with the intent to make it change, it will not.
We’re not getting rid of porn. That much is clear. As a “man of letters,” so to speak, I may be prejudiced in this regard, but I do think that using the tools we employ to critically examine literature to critically examine pornography will go a long way to finding out how these observations can go toward making a real change in the sexual dynamic of the next few generations.
It’s important to clarify the ethical question involved in the production of pornographic material. As I see it, there are two sides to this, namely supply and demand. Problems on the supply side are easy to identify. Conditions under which people are being pressured, coerced, threatened, manipulated by addiction, or actually forced to participate in the production of such material against their will cannot be tolerated. The snag is that these conditions are not necessarily identifiable merely by examining the final product. A photo series or video could depict grotesque sexual torture that is totally simulated, totally safe, and totally consensual, that does not actually cause any harm to the actors and actresses who play a part in the creation of that product. On the other hand, the creation of a video or photo spread depicting nothing more than a little nudity and perhaps some suggestive posing is a terrible crime if the subject is being coerced. This distinction is worth thinking about.
Which brings us to the demand side of things. Perhaps the actors and actresses participating in the afore-mentioned scene of simulated sexual torture are not harmed, but what can we say about the man who actually masturbates to this filth? As anyone who knows me is perfectly aware, I’m hardly a prude, but I don’t see how it’s possible to see someone who becomes aroused by images of abuse as anything other than reprehensible. I use that word in preference to “sick,” “needs help,” or “mentally ill,” because I don’t think that being a piece of shit is a sickness. In this case, the problem is with the consumer. Someone whose value system leads them to hold the people that arouse them in contempt to the extent at which they want to see those people “punished” sexually may not act out these scenarios in real life, but viewing this material does a great deal to reinforce their poisonous (usually misogynistic) values. This encourages the consumer in question to seek out other ways to manifest these values in their life and in the lives of the people around them. With effort, they will find ways to do this. Compare this type of individual to one aroused by the other image discussed above. That mildly explicit video or photo may have been produced as a result of a coercive criminal act, but it doesn’t really say anything about the person who views it. If they pay for it they’re participating in some sense, but if they look at it for free on the internet it’s hard to say that. This distinction, once again, is worth thinking about. It’s certainly conceivable that reprehensible person who views the mildly explicit image is going to imagine a sexual scenario that also confirms their values, just like the scene of sexual torture, but I still think there is a distinction there. I could be wrong about that.
The internet has been the major tool to distribute pornography in the last fifteen years, but the advent of increased copyright protection for online material and social networking sites has caused that dynamic to change significantly. Not only are there more regulations in place for people to protect copyrighted material, but the ubiquitous nature of pornography on the internet has done something to reduce the clandestine and concealed manner which pirates previously took advantage of to help themselves to whatever they liked. The idea that someone would be too ashamed of their involvement in that world to come forth and take legal action does not carry the water it once did.
Next, we have Twitter. I say Twitter because this appears to be the preferred social networking site for porn stars. Again, I’m not exactly an expert on this (0.o) but this is what it seems like to me. I have been absolutely fascinated by this phenomenon in the last few months. Recently, I noticed two things happen on the Twitter feed of Dors Feline, a young lady who does not appear to produce any material that actually involves her having sex, but is mostly limited to displaying her (formidable) breasts for her adoring (and paying) public. I began following her account out of curiosity, and noticed a few interesting things.
First of all, there was an incident a couple of months ago where material was stolen from the private, paying section of her website and distributed elsewhere online. She immediately went on Twitter, outraged, and asked her fans to do something about it. They very quickly went on attack mode and began to flood the thieves with nasty comments, abusive messages, and to actually hack these sites and remove the private material. Not too long after I saw a similar incident. Dors was upset because someone on Myspace had been sending her nasty, degrading messages. I tried to look at this guy’s Myspace page, but by the time I got there it had been hacked and defaced beyond any recognition. These fans are not fooling around. Stuff like that gives me warm fuzzies inside. I dearly hope what I’m seeing here is the beginning of a new trend in the production and distribution of porn. It makes me feel a little more optimistic about the whole situation.
Curiosity increasing, I began to follow the Twitter accounts of numerous porn stars. Although most of what I saw was significantly less dramatic than what I found on Dors Feline’s account (she seems to have this whole thing figured out pretty well), I was still encouraged. Most of it is the same crap that everyone else Tweets about, but that can actually be a big deal. When an actress known for some extremely hardcore material is Tweeting to tens of thousands of fans about going to a Red Socks game with her family, or the movie that she went to that night, this serves as an important reminder that she is a real person who does normal things. That may not sound like such a big step… well maybe it isn’t, but it’s a step nevertheless. Fans who previously might have only looked at this girl as a sexual instrument are brought into contact with her humanity. That will, no doubt, be lost on a lot of porn fans. But it will not be lost on everybody. I see this as having the potential to erode the barrier created by sexual objectification. It might not happen that way, sure, but I’m not wrong. The potential is there.
The beautiful young women who star in porn have, traditionally, been at the whim of producers and distributors of pornographic material. That has been the nature of the business. The horny and (occasionally) lonely men who masturbate to these pictures have also been more or less at the whim of the producers and distributors. The stereotypical porno-freak is a computer geek who can’t socially interact on a normal level and only gets sexual relief from these images and videos. Certainly this does not describe everyone who views such material, (because more or less everyone with a penis does, I assure you) but it is a significant demographic. When these two groups, porn stars and porn fans, suddenly have unprecedented access to one another through social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace, I have to ask, “what will the harvest be?”
It might mean that the actresses have increased control over their own material, what type of material they want to produce, and how they are perceived by their audience. At least, I see the potential for that. The real question I’m asking here is: how does that potential get realized? How does the supply and demand question, taken in consideration with the developments I describe above, offer an opportunity to create real, positive change? Porn, whether we like it or not, is now determining the way that the younger generation think about sex. Right now, as far as I can tell, that isn’t exactly a good thing. But. That. Can. Change. If people do not work with the intent to make it change, it will not.
We’re not getting rid of porn. That much is clear. As a “man of letters,” so to speak, I may be prejudiced in this regard, but I do think that using the tools we employ to critically examine literature to critically examine pornography will go a long way to finding out how these observations can go toward making a real change in the sexual dynamic of the next few generations.